poltr1 | TW-3 (and then some) for November 22-26, 2006.....

Wed 11/22: Had breakfast at First Watch with

athenawindsong. She also volunteered to cat sit for me.

After she left, I made a cursory inspection of my car's engine before my planned trip. The day before, I noticed a little bit of smoke or steam coming from the hood. It's a good thing I checked -- it appeared that the oil cap was missing. I haven't had the hood open sinde the oil change last month. I suspected that the person who changed my oil forgot to put the cap on. So I drove to the local Saturn dealership, explained the situation, and they gave me a new oil cap free of charge. (I didn't appreciate the service manager's suggestion that it may have fallen off during operation.) I also stopped at a local Speedway to pick up a quart of oil, since I was low.

I finally left Dayton at 11:00am. The weather was nice for a long drive. I had a number of idle thoughts along the way. Many of which left my mind quickly as I had no way to record them. The only one that stuck was when I passed the former United Skates of America rink on I-71 in Columbus. I used to go to a United Skates rink when I was younger. It closed in the early '80s. I wondered if the entire chain is defunct.

I arrived in Buffalo around 7:15pm. I stopped at my parents' home, unloaded the car, and started planning the Thanksgiving meal. I made a late-night run to Tops to get some needed supplies -- a cooking bag for the turkey, fresh spices, and muffins for breakfast. After I returned, I set up the camcorder so I could show my parents the latest videos of my daughter.

Thu 11/23: Watched the Macy's parade on TV while I began food prepartions. As in past years, I used the tried-and-true Scarborough Fair recipe for the turkey, although in a consolidated form (i.e. poultry seasoning that has three of the four mentioned ingredients). Stuffing was made in a saucepan and did not go into the bird. Instead, the turkey was filled with one half of an onion and three celery stalks.

Had some conversations with Mom, although I had to cringe every time she said "the colored people". Argh. I asked her if she realized how racist that sounded, and she denied it.

After the parade was over and the turkey was in the oven, I was able to relax. Since my parents had all the drapes drawn, I was itching to get outside into the sunlight. So I hopped in the car, with camcorder in tow, and drove by my elementary school, my high school, and my college. (I skipped my junior high school.)

Dad wasn't hungry at the time the food was ready -- he wanted to eat at 5pm while the turkey was ready at around 3pm -- so Mom and I ate while Dad watched the Lions game. The menu: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce with mandarin orange slices, green beans, corn on the cob, yams, and pumpkin pie. I think we're the only family around that doesn't have mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving.

The usual post-thanksgiving food coma ensued. Had some conversations with my Dad after we both woke up. He went to watch TV while I disappeared into my room to check email and catch up on LJ. Then I reconnected the camcorder to the VCR to watch and copy some more tapes of my daughter. Unfortunately, the final tape won't be in proper chronological sequence, but my dad said to not worry about that.

Fri 11/24: Slept in. My parents' neighbor Tony C. came over to see how my dad wired the house for an external generator. (He made the mistake of selling his generator a few days before the storm last month.)

Once again, wanderlust came to me and I had to leave the house. The first stop was lunch at Ted's Hot Dogs. Next, I went across the street to Eckerd Drugs to make prints of pictures I took on my digital camera. While they were being developed, I took a drive along the east fork of the Niagara River, stopping by Niawanda Park and Aqua Lane Park. I miss the big water.

Later, I got together with my friends Louis and Liz for a chicken wing dinner at Duff's. The three of us polished off a basket of 20 wings quite handily. Afterward, we had tea at the Higher Grounds Coffee House, and to the bar at Transit Lanes to watch the Sabres/Canadiens game and sing karaoke after that. The Canadiens won in the last second of overtime. Liz was getting sick (sore throat), so we skipped karaoke and went home.

Sat 11/25: Took Mom to (ugh) Wal-Mart for shopping. After dropping her off, I had a quick breakfast at Tim Horton's, and found a Book Outlet in the old Wurlitzer factory in North Tonawanda. (70% off all books! Woot!) I then called

kliklikitty, who had strep and didn't want me to come over. But I had goetta for

dagonell so I drove to her place and droppped it off. I did some more shopping at Big Lots and Sysco Foods, and had lunch at Mighty Taco.

When I returned home, I cut up some apples for dehydrating. My parents don't spray their apple tree, so they don't look as nice as the apples I'd find in a store. After the slices were placed in the dehydrator, I catalogged the pictures I made the previous day by adding sequence numbers and dates.

Dinner was an assorted sub at John & Mary's. What was missing from the sub were onion and oregano. Maybe that's why I don't like their subs as much as I thought I would. Afterward, I went to my friends Gerry & Lorna's place in Lockport to play Risk with some of Gerry's wargaming buddies, and to watch some TV. We saw an episode of "Land of the Lost", and then the Rob Zombie movie "The Devil's Rejects". This is definitely midnight-movie material, or drive-in goodness. I didn't do a breast count, body count, or detail the various forms of fu a la Joe Bob Briggs, but the counts would definitely be high.

Sun 11/26: Got up early. The goal was to leave before 10 AM so I could get back in Dayton at a reasonable time. I left my parents' home around 9:30am. I managed to avoid the stadium traffic. The worst part of the trip was I-71 southbound between Medina and Columbus. There were two wrecks that backed up traffic for miles. I got home to Dayton at around 7:30pm.